With a combination of bullet and regional JR trains, the final stop of this whirlwind festival tour could be in Yamagata Prefecture for the Yamagata Hanagasa, on August 5 to 7, an exhilarating street festival that brings together 10,000 performers of all ages. Whether dressed in vibrant summer kimonos or vivid happi coats, they perform variations of a regional Hanagasa dance, waving hats adorned with orange safflowers and singing folk songs, as musicians play a hypnotic mix of shamisen, or Japanese lute, shakuhachi flute, and taiko drums.
If you do opt for all three festivals, consider buying JR East’s Tohoku Area Rail Pass, which gives substantial savings when taking multiple shinkansen rides both to and in the region. It’s also possible to fly from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to parts of Tohoku, including flights to Aomori, Akita, and Yamagata with JAL and Haneda to Akita and Odate-Noshiro with ANA.
AloJapan.com